Being grateful for what you are, rather than decrying what you supposedly "aren't" makes for such a happier life.
Monday was the start of Fat Talk Free Week—an event created by Delta Delta Delta to help fight bad body image in girls and young women by addressing first the things we say to ourselves, and to our friends and family. It’s been around for six years, but it’s finally getting the press it deserves from the folks at Time magazine, Glamour.com, and of course the lovely Leslie Goldman from Never Say Diet at iVillage. (Good job, TriDelta ladies)
Banning fat talk isn’t just about resisting the urge to nitpick at our own bodies, it’s also about keeping body and beauty commentary on other people out of our conversations, too. And, if you ask me, it’s about replacing the old, negative scripts that run in our heads with new, helpful, positive, and healing ones. So that’s what I’m going to ask each of you to do today: Replace one negative comment or thought that you tend you have about your body or beauty with a positive or healing one.
I’ll go first: Instead of thinking that I wish my body looked as youthful as it did when it was 19, I will thank the Universe for allowing me to grow and live and change. The “aging” changes in my outer skin, face, and body are simply evidence of the growth and expansion these years have brought to my heart and mind. I love the person I am today—and it’s time, and this body, that got me here!
Now it’s your turn! What negative thought can you replace with a positive? xo…Sunny
When i feel like i am being judged by my appearance i try to remind myself that my body is MINE to enjoy and not for the pleasures of others. And there are LOTS of things that taste better than skinny feels 😉 xxx
Great post! Here’s mine: instead of complaining that my skin has some blemishes, I will rejoice in the fact that so far moderate acne has been the largest medical issue I’ve had to deal with.
I’d love if you checked out my post on Fat Talk Free Week!
http://www.healthforthewholeself.com/2010/10/three-lesser-known-facts-about-fat-talk/
I will stop complaining about moving my body in exercise and instead feel gratitude that I am able to do so!
I will stop complaining about the size my thighs and be grateful my legs are strong and healthy enough to move me through my day.
I sometimes bemoan my knees being fat and funny- looking (evidence of a stray comment in my teenage years by a boy i knew then: you’d be perfect if it wasn’t for your knees).
Instead, I’d like to say that my knees are just knees. They help my legs work properly and I can walk quite happily on them. They haven’t held me back from getting a boyfriend, graduating and generally living a full life. They’ve carried me through them instead!
Oh my goodness, Heather, I had a weird thing about my knees, too! An offhand comment from my mother when I was young about them being “big.” Isn’t it crazy how eagerly and easily we take in negatives and believe them-sometimes for years? xo…Sunny
Totally!
I also got the “you’ve got your Grandma’s legs” comments from my Mum, knowing full well what she was referring to, and have been very aware of my legs being on the larger side ever since.
It’s really shocking, and it really highlights to me the importance of watching what I say around young children (and people in general). I hope that I would make a bigger and better effort at bringing any daughter of mine up to feel good in her skin - whatever its shape, size or colour.
OMG, I have wacky knees too! And no one even ever said anything, I just always noticed them myself. (-;
Anyway, I choose to focus not on the abundant stretch marks my body has, but instead the over 80 lb weight loss I have tackled this past year (former extreme sweets binger, went over 300 lbs during pregnancy, etc). I am finally in a much healthier place, in so many ways - binges very few & far between, minor when they do happen - and if it took me some stretch marks to get here, then so be it. I have my health, and that’s so much more important! And it will serve me well for decades to come.
Thanks for this thought-provoking post. I enjoyed it!
WOW. I thought I was a knee-loathing minority, but clearly I am not alone!
I, too, pledge to be grateful for my knees’ ability to get me from point A to point B…and to have been injury-free after being a runner for three + years!
It’s crazy there are so many of us!
I read an article on cosmetic knee surgery with enthusiasm recently, only to realise how silly it was to be so hung up on something that really matters very little. That, and this article showed how flipping painful it was!